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Monday, June 2, 2014

Building A Crochet Library

Building a library is a valuable endeavor for anyone with a passion. Teachers collect books with activity suggestions and classroom management tips. Entrepreneurs collect books with advice on building their business and working with others. Bakers collect cookbooks filled with recipes to try. Having a library available to you means you're always prepared for a new project. When you're stuck you can thumb through your library for inspiration. If you have a question or problem you can refer to your library for guidance. You can use your materials to help and educate friends and family who are interested in picking up your hobby as well. Finally, building a library shows that you are serious about your craft and provides a sense of pride.

Since my biggest passion is crochet I have invested some time and money into building a crochet library. Keep in mind that a craft library isn't just comprised of books. Your craft library, like mine, might be made of books, ebooks, printed patterns, PDF patterns, magazines, bookmarked blog posts, and more. I really love the feel and experience of a physical book but a digital crochet library is just as real and valuable. Ravelry has some great tools for organizing your digital library. I like to keep my PDFs in a file on my computer. If you're relying on a digital library, don't forget to back up your data to avoid potential heartbreak if something goes wrong.

Today I'd like to tell you about two of the most recent additions to my library. The first is Crochet One-Skein Wonders by Judith Durant and Edie Eckman.

This book is so well-organized. It is a collection of patterns by many different designers. It contains both text instructions and charts. It's handy because it takes care of those hang-around skeins. It's a good place to look for a project for that special expensive worsted skein you got because you liked the color but you don't have much of it, but it's also good for those times when you've just finished a large project and have a random skein leftover. There's a large variety of projects so you don't get bored, from accessories to toys to home goods. I would definitely recommend this book.

Another book I recently acquired is Crochet Noro. The patterns in this book are written by many top notch designers.

I don't use Noro very often necessarily, but this book is so inspiring that it's nice to have around. I'm definitely going to work up several of the projects in this book. Looking at all of the gorgeous pictures and projects puts me in such a positive and productive mood. It's beautiful. So even though I may only work up a few of the 30 projects, this book is worth it to me for the encouragement it provides. If you're planning to work up more than 3ish patterns from a book you're thinking of purchasing, it's worth it. The amount you would pay for those patterns individually would be equal or more at that point (and that's if those patterns are available individually at all). Plus, who knows how your tastes may change or who in your life might benefit from borrowing the book.

I hope you've enjoyed this small slice of my crochet collection. What do you have in your craft library?